1. Introduction
A lot of the things we do in our daily lives, are being determined by technology. It changes the way we interact with people, what we see, how we do things, and we even let it make choices for us. We are letting machines control our lives more and more. Phones that talk to us, customized radio stations that play only music we like, it recommends movies to us, it connects us to people on Facebook. Pretty soon we’ll let cars drive us wherever we want them to. All these things are determined by how machines see the world.
We already taught machines to read, and speak, just like I am reading this to you now. Machines are even starting to get artistic, trying to replicate the old masters. By inserting a regular photo and any artwork of your choice. It can generate an image in the style of any given artwork. Even the music you are hearing right now was made by a machine.
I am Elvin, a graphic designer from the netherlands. In these series of videos, I am researching the influence technology has on humans. I have always been fascinated by technology. It was technology that made me interested to become a graphic designer. Technology continues to increase our human abilities. But it also influences us in some notable, and some less notable ways. The goal of these videos is to make people more aware, of these influences. I think it is important for people, to make a well-informed opinion about technology. Therefore these videos try to take a look at both the positive, and the negative effects of technology. But to be able to talk about technology, I need to use technology. These videos are made with the use of countless gathered videos from the Internet. The Internet has given us the ability access a plethora of images, videos and information, that made it possible for me to make these videos. All the videos, music and textual sources are credited on machinemade.xyz
I find it fascinating when computers or machines try to do things, we thought only humans could do. It gives us a small glance at how technology sees our world. Using the Google Translate app, I tried to have a look through the eyes of technology. Using the Google Translate app. Google Translate has a function to translate the text it is seeing through the camera, to a language of your choice. But what I did is trying to fool the camera by showing it abstract patterns. The app thinks these are actually words. As a result you get random words that sometimes almost read like a dadaist poem. This experiment makes something visible that wasn’t there before. It wasn’t visible to our eyes, but the mechanical eye is trying to make some sense of it.
I hope you will enjoy these series of videos researching the influence of technology on humans.
Video sourcesNat and Lo - How Google Translate Makes Signs Instantly ReadableKraftwerk - Expo 2000 on Top Of The PopsIshikawa - BFS-Auto: High Speed Book ScannerJalopnik - Tesla's Autopilot System Is Creepy And WonderfulIBTimes UK - Human or Machine?Squarepusher × Z-MACHINESHolly Herndon - InterferenceMorning Storm H264ReForm | Data Becomes Art in Immersive VisualizationsBeachfront B-RollRobots Dreams - KomodoroidEloise Yokum - Stock Market TickerMelomics Media - 0music 01TedXTalks - Next Nature
2. Nature
To be able to talk about technology, we first have to talk about its counterpart: nature.1 We consider nature to be everything in our surrounding material world, that exists independent of human activities. While technology is completely dependend on human activities. Technology is the human application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes.2 Although nature and technology are usually percieved as polar opposites, they are actually closely connected. And in some cases technology and nature can be quite hard to distinguish from another. People have always lived very close to nature. Nature is generally seen as harmonious, nurturing and beautiful. The notion that nature is good for you, and makes you more connected only started when the industrial revolution broke out. Only then, when people started observing nature from a distance, did peoples attitude towards nature change.3 Before this, not all nature was percieved as beautiful. People actually found some parts of nature to be particularly ugly. Mountains for example where these enormous ugly obstacles that made it hard for people to travel or live on. It was only since rich people started to climb the mountains as an activity, that mountains where percieved as something intriguing and beautiful.4 The idea that nature is always good for you doesn’t seem to be completely fair. Nature is full of treacherous elements; poisonous plants, dangerous animals, harsh weather conditions. And don’t forget about the destructive consequences the weather can have for farmers. With the arrival of the industrial revolution came a general disdain towards technology. Windmills were already seen as an ugly stain on the landscape.5 Which we now usually perceive as something rather beautiful, as an extension of nature itself.
When humans are born they are completely vulnerable, it takes them years to walk and communicate. While newborn sheep or giraffes are able to walk within hours.6 Humans need technology to survive. Humans aren’t equipped for a specific environment. We aren’t able to survive in a purely natural environment without technology. Without technology we are just maladjusted primitive creatures.7 We need technological tools to stabilize our living conditions, such as farms and housing. And we need language to communicate amongst each other.
Helmuth Plessner, a German philosopher, talks about humans having an eccentric positionality. Which means that humans are conscious of experiencing ourselves as the center of our world. Unlike animals, who do observe their surroundings, but are unaware of their observation thereof. Animals live in a natural naturality where their choices are based on their instincts. Humans live in a natural artificiality, in which man always considers himself as the center.8 That’s why humans are always shaping themselves and their environment. It is a way to comprehend the world we live in. By creating boundaries we can accept and try to understand the world. For example by making paintings and sculptures. Language helps us to understand eachother, and makes us able to understand and categorize the world. It gives us the ability to have an opinion, to think and express ourselves. If we think something is beautiful or ugly, if something is good or bad, we are able to talk and think about it. Laws and regulations determine how we deal with our environment, and creates artificial boundaries for how we need to function in society. The ability to selfreflect made us to become the dominators of our planet.9 We systemized our world to be able to understand it. It helped us to achieve freedom, but it also imprisons us in some ways. We shape the world without fully knowing how it works. But we use technology to achieve a better understanding of the world.
As a result of humans shaping their own world through technological, cultural and political systems, we never have direct unfiltered access to our surrounding world. Man is and has always been conditioned. This is what makes humans technological by nature. Petran Kockelkoren, a Dutch philosopher, explains this very well:“Technology hasn’t estranged man from their naturalness, since man has always been conditionally estranged. Language, technology and art actually help us understand the unconquerable estrangement we are constantly exposed to. It is helping us articulate and even celebrate this estrangement.” Every significant change, albeit technological or cultural, humans transform themselves with it.10 The mastering of fire, housing, agriculture, language, writing and computers, all had enormous impact on us. It has radically changed our environment and human nature.11 These changes have conditioned us.
Nowadays nature is hardly ever untouched. Although it seems like it is, a lot of nature was designed by people. You probably feel very harmonious and connected to nature when you’re out for a relaxing stroll in the woods. Forests are often constructed in such a way that it elicits the feeling of solitude. But some forests are actually specifically designed so you don’t notice all the other people walking around.12 Cows grazing in the fields seems very n atural as well. Animals have been cultivated by humans for centuries, and even the animals themselves can be specifically bred and altered by humans. The cows on this field were bred specifically to be able to walk on this particularly drassy field. Selective breeding made their hoofs bigger. Making them able to survive on these fields. We enjoy the animal kingdom in zoo’s, where animals are flown in from all over the whole world. The nature we perceive as nature could not be counted as real nature anymore. The most natural thing we have on this earth is probably ourselves. In some cases the real and simulated nature are merging. An interesting example of real and simulated nature merging, are the herons found in Artis, the Amsterdam City Zoo. The blue heron is a natural inhabitant of Amsterdam. But they enjoy the man made nature of the zoo so much, that some of them have immigrated there on their own accord. Intruding the living spaces of the penguins, sea lions and flamingos. Sometimes even paying deathly visits to the lions, not a natural predator for herons in the Netherlands.13 Within the subject of nature, the Netherlands is especially interesting.
“God created the world, with the exception of the Netherlands. That the Dutch created themselves“. —Voltaire (18th century)
Most of the parts in the Netherlands that are below sea level are artificial, man made. Since the late 16th century, large areas of land have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes. No other country is as man made as the Netherlands. The Flevopolder is actually the largest artificial island in the world.14 The Dutch are even trying to recreate nature resorts into their prehistoric conditions. Nature and animals are supposed to support themselves without human interference. Every winter this hands-off approach raises questions to nature lovers. Due to the low amount of natural resources, 24% of the population dies from starvation. A bit too natural for nature lovers.15 Can we really consider this conscious planning of nature to be natural? When a bird builds a nest it is nature, when humans build a house suddenly it’s considered culture. So does this mean that only animals can create nature? And people can only create culture?16 There is however hardly any physical nature unaltered by people. Except for parts of the ocean floor and space. Rainforests are nature, but parks are not. Foxes are nature, dogs are not. We intentionally created and designed dogs. Strawberries are natural, bananas are not. Bananas seem perfectly natural. But the type of bananas we eat don’t contain any fertile seeds anymore. That is why these bananas have to be cloned. Making all bananas genetically the same.Recognizing real nature is quite confusing. Recognizing reality is too. Living in a technological world consisting of photography, television screens and computer screens. The world is increasingly becoming virtual. The last few decades are seen as the information age, we’re surrounded by information on our phones, computer screens and even on the streets. When humans still lived on the savannah, we were also surrounded by information. The colors of the leaves told us the time of year, the position of the sun told us the time of day. The tracks in the sand led us to our food. But because of the declined relevance of this information, we mostly stopped noticing it.17 These signs aren’t important anymore for us to be able to survive. We can just look at our calendars and watches to know the time and date. If we want food we can just go to the supermarket where everything is always in season. Technology has replaced the functional use of this nature. We don’t have to read this nature anymore. We mostly go into nature to relax, leave our other information behind, that can be quite demanding at times. When we are walking through this nature we don’t even notice all the information it contains anymore. This isn’t a commentary about how we lost touch with nature. Not at all, it’s just simply that the world has changed. And there is no need for us to be able to read nature in this way anymore. What technology could learn from nature is its ability to blend in with its environment. Negative associations attributed to technology are usually its tendency to be hard to ignore. We could think of ways to make technology more silent, quietly conveying its message to us if we care to read it and to be out of the way when we don’t. Real nature is hardly a part of our lives anymore, we all live in cities that were all build, planned and designed by humans. Everything is thought out and carefully designed to fit our needs. We put in parks, plant trees but this wouldn’t be considered real nature. With technology continually evolving, our technology is simply becoming our next nature.
The most important thing to take away from this, is the technological nature of humans. Humans have always needed technology to be able to survive and understand the world. Thanks to technology we are able to get a better understanding of the world. Therefore I think it is short-sighted, and wrong to see technology itself, as something that can ruin mankind. Technology has made us who we are. Nature and technology aren’t mutually exclusive concepts anymore. We don’t talk about nature in the literal sense of the word. The literal meaning of nature is: everything in our surrounding material world, that exists independent of human activities. Nature is not independent of human activities anymore. We are altering and extending nature using technology. Technology itself is also growing closer to nature. Nature has highly efficient systems. Technology looks at nature to imitate and learn from these systems. We adapt them for our needs. To understand how technology is trying to imitate nature, I tried out a tool that generates shapes, similar to how animals are bred and naturally evolve. You start out with a simple shape, you can then choose a couple of variants each step. Eventually creating a new shape that has evolved from your previous choices. This is interesting because it is imitating nature in a really small way. I also tried out a technique called: John Conway’s Game of Life, to create patterns. This is a very old technique invented by the English mathematician John Conway in 1970. The patterns are generated by using the basic human rules of survival, thus creating unique living patterns. I made one of these patterns physical. Making it in a way more real than on a screen.
Textual Source1 Reference.com - Nature (01/26/2016)
2 Oxforddictionaries.com - Technology (01/26/2016)
3 Next Nature - Bruce Sterling (15-17)
4 UGLY The Aesthetics of Everything - Stephen Bayley (106-110)
5 UGLY The Aesthetics of Everything - Stephen Bayley (114-115)
6 Next Nature - Koert van Mensvoort (225)
7 Per toeval filosoferen - Bernard Stiegler (9)
8 Filosoferen en leren - Helmuth Plessner (01/18/2016)
9 Next Nature - Koert van Mensvoort (230)
10 Techniek: kunst, kermis & theater - Petran Kockelkoren (14-15)
11 Jos de Mul - Kunstmatig van Nature
12 Vizualism - Interview de datajournalist (11/26/2011)
13 Next Nature - Koert van Mensvoort (106-107)
14 Het historisch landschap: ijkpunt in onze dynamische samenleving (06/01/2016)
15 Next Nature - Koert van Mensvoort (120-123)
16 Next Nature - Bas Haring (181-183)
17 Next Nature - Koert van Mensvoort (249)
Video SourcesGoogle for Work - Inside a Google data centerBBC: Natural World - A Highland Haven HDStories from the Stone AgeBBC: Industrial RevolutionElements:Earth FlightBBC: Britain’s Killer StormsBarcroft TV: Flesh EatersBionic RoseFritz Lang - MetropolisDennis Schmelz - The Old Windmill in 4KT-Rex Johnson - Newborn Baby Girl Early Wake Up & StretchingThoinfo - Baby Walking Fail, Funny Baby Walking 2014Knocked Up (2007)LEO Zoological Conservation Center - Baby Giraffe First Time Standing"FUTURE HUMAN" - Wearable Technology (2014)UCD Research - Mesolith - Building the First HouseABC: Ancient WritingJeff Quitney - Man in 457 mph WindCaters TV - Animals in Mirrors Hilarious ReactionsVadim I. Filimonov - Crowd 24Drone World - 12,000 ft Across the Golden Gate BridgeFORMS at MoMA PS1: R Plus 6 / Affect IndexMOCA - Matthew Barney, Water CastingsTabitha Anderson - Arca & Jesse Kanda @ MOMA PS1Ingaptrannanggio - American English Pronunciation Dictionarywcolby - Knightscope Robots on Patrol in FremontPolitie - Politie, de filmIBM Smarter Cities - Smart TransportationLernvideos und Vorträge - Scientists At Work In LaboratoryDoc Zone - Deluged by DataNate Boyce/Oneohtrix Point Never- Russian MindMichael Manning - This Is Not a PlaceArca - XenAlfieAesthetics -Wet Weather Fire-Making - HowToSish Advexon - Future Technology | Our Digital World 2020Sebastien Prins - ma forêtAdrien Olivier - Most beautiful drone shotVPRO - Nederland van Boven S01E03DIRUAM - De leukste dierentuin momentenDe Visdief - Werkt deze blauwe reiger die enorme snoek naar binnen?gualthiero - Zoo lion catching bird (again!)VPRO - Nederland van Boven (flevoland van boven)VPRO - Nederland van Boven (wilde natuur)JBYahamech - Hummingbird Building a Nest.mp4Weaver Companies,Inc - Time lapse of home constructedEVNautilus - Stunning Underwater Brine Lake and Deep Sea Wavesheyyoumen1 - Lost in Space 2Planet Life - IMAX Tropical RainforestThe New York Times - 36 Hours in Central Park, New YorkPlanet Earth - s01e07Nathan ArmstrongZeibiz News - Growth of a Strawberrysahan2u - Harvesting and Packing Bananas8K Next - Times Square - Manhattan, New YorkGary Turk - Look UpNeil Bromhall - Beech buds and leaves opening time lapseJamie Venton - Sun, Moon & Stars Timelapse Jersey & FranceMike Valentine - Sand dunes blowing sand at sunsetdavisryan8 - Close-up of tourbillon watch movementMaryAnn Mason - Publix Supermarket tour8K Next - Palm Beach Florida8K Next - Awesome Aerials of Manhattan at NightWorld Nature Video - Virtual Walks - Tropical BeachesTony Banks - Times Square at Night 31/3/2015Ted X Talks - Next Nature (Koert van Mensvoort)Elois Yokum - Stock Market TickerThe Creators Project - Data Becomes Art in Immersive Visualizations
3. Technology
Humans are natural cyborgs. Language, agriculture and housing, all had major impact on humanity. It has helped us grow as a species and it continues to change our world view. Villém Flusser, a Czech born media theorist, writes about the two most important technological developments that helped to shape humans. The invention of the linear writing system, and the technical image. The technical image is referring to the images that reach us through photography, film, television and the computer screen. These two inventions have radically altered the way we think. To explain how these technologies have influenced us, Flusser uses the terms magical thinking and historical thinking. Flusser sees the concept of history as a direct result of the linear writing system. With the ability of writing, life became a linear arrangement. Events were given an order, first this happened and then that. Because of the linear writing system, everything is causal. The sun rises and the rooster crows. In magical thinking there is no linear order; the rise of the sun means crowing, and crowing means sunrise. The technical image forces us to apply magical thinking. A picture is not linear. A picture is all at once. The movement of your eyes influences the connections you make and the resulting meaning. In contrast to historical thinking, there is no before and after in a picture. The gaze of the viewer produces valuable relationships between the elements. Language, writing systems and images are examples of technology helping us understand the world. Images have become very important to humans. Images are mediators between the world and man. Man has no immediate access to the meaning of the world, but it needs images to help him make the world conceivable. Now these images have become our reality. Flusser believes images are supposed to function like a map, helping us find our way. But he believes images seem to have become more like screens. Man stops to decipher the images and forgets that it was him who brought images into its life to orient themselves.18 In this way, the technical image in whatever form or shape it may be, is restructuring our life. Just like the technology of writing that came before it.
Technology gives people the tools to relate and connect to the world. It helps us understand and experience the world. But with every new technology our perception is changing. It feels like new technology is coming sooner than ever. But this is probably how it has always felt to people in any age. We continually have to rediscover our center in the world. It makes us lose balance for a while, our senses slowly adapt until a new balance has been achieved.19 Although humans need technology to survive, it isn’t necessarily easy for us to accept. More than two centuries ago it was Plato who was very critical of the invention of the writing system. He believed the invention of writing would cripple the human mind.20 It would make us stupid because we didn’t have to memorize or know things anymore. After all, we would be able to look everything up in books. Plato would probably have nightmares if he knew about the Internet. The Internet has been able to make information accessible for most people in the world. Creating a centralized library accessible from almost anywhere at any time. The writing system made it possible for people to capture their ideas. Ideas weren’t temporary anymore. Making it possible to preserve it for next generations to learn and improve upon. Without the writing system we wouldn’t be where we are today. When the train was introduced in the 19th century the reaction wasn’t that of amazement, but that of fear. People weren’t used to landscapes passing by in such quick succession. The body no longer related to the landscape like it is used to. The world is moving, but the body is not.
People where even claiming traveling by train gave them all kinds of illnesses. It wasn’t until artists made installations simulating a train ride, that people were slowly willing to accept trains into their lives.21 There always seems to be some kind of negative attitude towards new technology, at first. Everything that is natural is automatically considered better, healthier and more beautiful. The fruits we grow in our own garden are usually considered healthier and better, while genetically manipulated fruit could actually look better, taste better and even be healthier.22 Plato may have been right that we remember less now, simply because we don’t have to remember everything anymore. It would be quite hard to carry around all the books containing the information you would need, but the smartphone has made this effortless. Everything is at your fingertips all the time. Not only has the rise of the internet made it less important to remember information. Our brains aren’t focused on remembering anymore. With all the information at hands reach it has become much more important to become better at comparing and analyzing information. To find the right information, it is of immeasurable value to be able to filter it. But even this analytical skill is becoming less important as websites like Google are parsing our questions and prioritizing the results. There is speculation by theorists and neuroscientists, that in the future our most important skill will be visual-spatial intelligence.23 There is no technology (yet) that contains or simulates the visual-spatial intelligence that we as humans have. We are able to conjure up mental images and think in three-dimensional terms. Skills that are especially to artists and designers.
The most impressive technology, is technology that isn’t even noticeable to us anymore. We don’t notice language as a technology, because it is natural to us now. Time has been a part of human life for so long that it feels quite natural to us. But it can also be both natural, and estranging. Our experiences of time are not dependent on nature anymore, we systemized time using technology. We don’t need to look at the changing seasons, as the time is on our wrists or on our phones. We have systemized time on a global scale. While nature-time can be diverse. Seasons can become longer and shorter, and daylight varies. Humans still have their very own natural sense of time, which can differ largely with how we perceive the 24 hour clock.24 Nothing impacts the mechanical clock, but there are a lot of factors impacting our personal sense of time. But having an international time system in place, helps us to plan ahead. And plan for the future.
As we now know, technology is not only an instrument, extending our human minds and bodies. It is also a mediator. It determines how we see the world, while at the same time it is helping us understand the world. Most of our connections to the world are made through technology, and is always part of our environment. When we listen to music, hear the ticking of a clock on the background. When we make a phone call or read the temperature from a thermometer. We are connecting to the world through technology. Therefore our whole world is mediated. But technology is our only way to interpret the world. Therefore, it is important for us to be aware of this.25 Because we can influence the world and ourselves with technology, it is always a subject that raises ethical questions. Where do we draw our boundaries in the use of technology? Is it ok to suppress aggression in aggressive people by using technology like deep brain stimulation? Deep brain stimulation has been known to alter the persons personality in some cases. Sometimes even family and friends don’t recognize the person anymore.26
Should we insert computer chips into our bodies to increase our human potential? We already use a lot of technology as an extension of our bodies. A lot of people wear glasses or lenses, improving their eyesight. Technology so common that the wearer hardly is aware of them anymore. Until they on one day forget to bring along their glasses. Creating the feeling that someone has forgot a part of his body. People already get the same sort of feeling when they forget their watch or mobile phone. It is already part of being human. Technology has become such a big part of us that we even imagine phantom feelings of technology. Imagining hearing your phone ring, hearing a Facebook notification, feeling your phone vibrate. It has become so common it has even gotten a name: phantom vibration syndrome.27
The smartphone has had a major impact on our society. With its connection to the internet we are able to connect to almost anyone on the planet. Just like the internet-connected computer did, but with the ability to take it anywhere. You don’t have to sit in front of your desk to be connected to the world anymore. There has been a lot of critique that smartphones make us less social creatures. While our relation to the surrounding world has changed. It has also empowered us with the ability to communicate with any person you want to talk to at that moment in time. If you’d rather talk to a friend on the other side of the world, than a stranger on the train, that would be quite understandable. It is connecting us to the people that matter the most to us regardless of how far away they are. But nonetheless selfcontrol is a very important aspect. With new technology we have to find a new balance and set up new social rules. Although objects themselves don’t contain ethics or morals. They do in connection to humans.28 An example of this is the Panopticon Prison. The prison itself isn’t very powerful. But when people are placed inside this prison, it has a big effect on their behaviour. Making the technology in combination to humans, very powerful. That’s why there is no absolute division between the object and the subject.29 It shows the power of technology as a mediator. Humans and technology are intertwined because the worldview of a person changes through the use of technology. This changing view can be the result of intentional design, but it could also be unintentional. Technological is filled with moral. Speed cameras regulate the speed we drive, to diminish the dangers of driving a car. We have to put a coin into a shopping cart so we return the cart where it belongs to get our money back. In this way ethics aren’t mainly human, but also a big part of technology.30 This also raises the question if we could lose our human freedom or autonomy to technology. The French philosopher Michel Foucault explains the concept of autonomy as the absence of external interferences, leaving the subject as pure as possible. The concept of freedom acknowledges the freedom of the subject in the ability to interact within these outside influences. If we look at freedom and autonomy within these concepts, humans have never been autonomous. We have always been shaped by outside forces.31 Forces like: technology, politics or philosophy. We do seem to have a form of freedom. The freedom to interact within these influences. If we use technology to do our work, we can create more freedom to do things we enjoy doing. For example a lot of news articles are already being written by machines.
Textual Source18 Vilém Flusser - Een filosofie van de fotografie (9-12)
19 Petran Kockelkoren - Techniek: kunst, kermis & theater (12)
20 Jos de Mul - Kunstmatig van Nature (21)
21 Petran Kockelkoren - Techniek: kunst, kermis & theater (9-13)
22 Next Nature - Ties van de Werd (226-227)
23 Thinking in the Future Tense - Jennifer James (178)
24 Next Nature - Caroline Nevejan (215-217)
25 Op de vleugels van Icarus - Peter Paul Verbeek (54-55)
26 Jos de Mul - Kunstmatig van Nature (21)
27 http://www.cnet.com/news/imaginary-phone-diagnosis-vibranxiety/ (08/01/2016)
28 Op de vleugels van Icarus - Peter Paul Verbeek (87-88)
29 Op de vleugels van Icarus - Peter Paul Verbeek (11-17)
30 Op de vleugels van Icarus - Peter Paul Verbeek (17)
31 Op de vleugels van Icarus - Peter Paul Verbeek (106)
32 Op de vleugels van Icarus - Peter Paul Verbeek (24)
33 Op de vleugels van Icarus - Peter Paul Verbeek (54-55)
34 Op de vleugels van Icarus - Peter Paul Verbeek (91)
35 The Guardian - The Problem with Self-driving Cars (11/01/2016)
Video SourcesVilem FlusserMonkeySee - How To Improve Your HandwritingDoc Zone - Deluged by DataNational Science Foundation - Thinking Brain - Mysteries of the BrainHistory Channel - Is Time Travel PossibleFrancis Ghersci - Beautiful Sunrise Time LapseYANG Edwin - ROOSTER CROWING IN THE MORNINGMartin Parr - Bon Marchébob jaroc - Analog_Memorial / Borg_Acid160bpm - 580hrs of vhs in 300 secondsSang-Young Kim - Apple Maps 3D Flyover Tour - ParisThe Globe and Mail - Video: A behind-the-scenes glimpseRaven Kwok - 1DDCB (New Age Dark Age)Microsoft 2014 Super Bowl Commercial: EmpoweringNosaj Thing - Cold Stareschrisforberg64wikimedia - Portrait of PlatoAsmr Vids - Writing A Book 1 - Order of the SoulNienke Andersson - The Library of BirminghamAkihiko Taniguchi - big_browser_2016_testLiberty University - Jerry Falwell Library TourBuster Keaton - Our Hospitality (1923)Velocity Even - Looking Outside A Train Window For An HourTemponaut Timelapse - Rotting Fruit Decomposition Time-LapseGardenieres - Teena's Backyard Orchard Part 1Techrax - How To Properly Grind an iPhone 6Pocketnow - 10 Years Ago: Pocketnow's First SmartphoneEpic Reads - Book Nerd ProblemsAlan Cawson - News At Ten On The Information SuperhighwayTomorrow's World - The Information SuperhighwayGCFLearnFree.org - Basic Search StrategiesStefan Wagner - LoopPresencing Institute - Conversation with Nipun MehtaMetron - TimePolygon - ClocksDmitry Pisanko - ISS SymphonyZoomSoundLab - ZOOM ARQ: Go LiveNoronicDisaster - Marshall McLuhan - Explorations - 1960weenielongus - RCA Victor Master 21WeSC - HeadphonesApotheosisTK117 - Slow Motion - Second Hand of a ClockLucy (2014) - Phone Call ScenexUmp Science Toys - Digital Instant Read Thermometer C/FBBC - Black Mirror TrailerFutureworld (1976)Francesco Paciocco - Master/MindScience Channel - Computer Chips in Your BrainFeelvibe 10 - LensCrafters TV CommercialTheLoaded0ne - Putting in Contact LensJaak Kaevats - Street-ScapeJohn Hope - Walking in Lugano (spring)Random Daily Videos - Cell Phone VibratingThe Mobile Movement - Upwardly Mobile: Connected WorldMicronTechnology - Your Connected WorldSmithBusinessSchool - Inside the Panopticon PrisonNeil Blomkamp - YellowTelstra - Our Connected FutureCNET - Smarter DriverGeoBeats News - Maryland Speed CameraJeffattube1 - Getting a coin-vended shopping cartMichel Foucault - AFP PHOTO / MICHELE BANCILHONTHX 1138 (1971)France24 - Robot NewsCharlie Chaplin - Modern Times (1936)Automato - Ethical ThingsCBS This Morning - China targets criticsCCTV America - Alibaba launch credit scoreDemon Seed (1977)The Creators Project - The Making Of ‘I Origins’ (2014)GMUNK - the CHAMBERInstitut für Kunstdokumentation - RYOJI IKEDA: test pattern [100 m version]Gizmodo - Watch Your Dead Tech Get DemolishedInteresting Videos - How Baby Grows in the WombTechnigeek - Robot Suit HALCCAchannel - Trailer for Misleading InnocenceKQED QUEST - Self-Driving Cars: The Road AheadBBC Newsnight - The trolley problem and ethics of driverless carsWired - Can Prosthetics Outperfrom Real Limbs?Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis - Jon RafmanMotherboard - The Dawn of Killer Robots
4. Simulation
It has become increasingly hard to make a judgement about how real our world is. Our experiences are in a lot of ways simulated, virtual, planned and increasingly abstract. We are far away from the time that buying something meant actually exchanging goods. We do not exchange our cows for sheep anymore. We hardly even use paper money anymore to exchange goods, we are mostly exchanging invisible numbers using plastic cards. We can have meetings with people all over the world, without actually meeting them in the flesh. When you’re calling someone you’re simulating being there with the other person. We’re connecting through interfaces. Sometimes we don’t even know what things are or do anymore. We see the world through screens, we are constantly in an area in between reality and simulation. A lot of the things we see on our screens are now part of our reality. We concieve them as real. Humans are becoming more machine-like and machines are becoming more human. This isn’t necessarily scary. But these changes are continually challenging us as human beings. We need to readjust and find our comfortable center in the world. There are even digital detox camps for people that believe the digital world is having a bad impact on them. You are required to have good judgment of your use of technology. Which, admittedly, isn’t always easy. But people romanticizing a world without technology are simply denying the technological nature of humans. People longing for “simpler” times, might forget that technology is there to make our lives simpler not more complex. Until the 1960s parts of Africa still used cows as a currency. But it became quite apparent that this system wasn’t scalable. The use of cows as a currency resulted in an overpopulation of cattle overgrazing the fields. The environmental problems this caused went on till the 1980s.36 The idea of a simpler world might seem romantic to some, but is mostly not very realistic.
Technology has helped us make life easier and more understandable. New technologies can sometimes be hard to accept. To help people grasp new technology, we make use of already established visual language. Windows, wallpapers, the trashcan, the floppy drive, the shopping cart. New inventions always mirror old inventions. Cars where designed as horseless carriages. The qwerty keyboard is based on the typewriter. Mirroring old inventions doesn’t always make sense. The qwerty layout was designed for typewriters not to get the keys trapped, by placing the most used keys as far from each other as possible. In the age of computer keyboards and touchscreens, this problem has ceased to exist. Sometimes parts of technology, can become dominant standards.37 Even though they don’t always make a lot of sense anymore, and there might be other and better ways. We still use them, because we are used to them. Making it harder to see things in a different way. Midi, the now dominant standard for digitally transcribing music. This method of longer and shorter blocks representing music, has formed the way we look at making music on digital devices. While there might have been better, and more interesting ways of representing music, this has now become the industry standard.38
Things really start to become confusing when digital representations of real life things start popping up in the real world. Blurring the separation between the real and virtual even more. The separation between real and virtual has been blurred.39 There is no real separation anymore. A lot of our experiences are simulated as well. Take for example the car door. Car doors naturally make a sound when you close them, letting you know you properly closed your door. But because todays cars are so precisely engineered, the car doesn’t naturally make this sound anymore. So now this sound is being simulated, confirming that you actually closed the door. And electrical cars have become so quiet that they don’t make sounds like cars with combustion engines do. The sound that regular cars make isn’t a feature but a byproduct of the technology. So now we are trying to simulate the sound of engines because we are so accustomed to them. Not only because we expect cars to make a sound but also for the safety of the people surrounding them.
Things usually do not work the same in the physical domain, as they do in the digital. These two domains work within different rules. In videogames there are no physical consequences. You can simply respawn and start all over again. Videogames give people a safe environment to blow of steam, and do things they would never do in the real world. But it is becoming increasingly complex when the borders between virtual and reality fade. An example of borders blurring are the drones used by the American Army. These drones can be controlled from behind a computer screen. You don’t personally have to be in the battlefield anymore. Drones have made it possible to kill someone, with the push of a button, just like in a computer game. When you kill someone from behind a computer screen, it doesn’t feel real. This can be very confusing, and most of all very dangerous. With computer games trying to replicate real life as close as possible, we’re creating some interesting situations. Recent research has shown, that compulsive gamers have hyperconnected neural networks.40 Which means, they could essentially think more efficiently, recognize important information in an environment, and respond quickly to this new information. There have been cases where the digitally gathered skills, have helped people in real life situations.41 People seem to react different to virtual simulations than they do to the real world. In the physical world we loathe traffic jams. But strangely enough, some people are actually willing to wait in traffic jams in a video game. The once popular computergame Second Life, made people think about actually living, in a totally virtual environment. Games like Second Life, make us look at the real world in another way.
Technology reveals its own world. These worlds aren’t necessarily comparable to their natural variants.42 They can develop their own kind of language and aesthetics. GPS, Aerial photography, drones, and surveillance cameras are new ways of percieving the world. It’s not what we see, but it is what the technology is seeing. Most people do see the technical image as a window into the world. We think we can trust our own eyes. We see images as reality. The philosopher Vilém Flusser is worried about this lack of criticism towards the mechanical image.43 In a time where images are replacing words, this lack of criticism does indeed seem dangerous. The objectivity of images are an illusion. As soon as our news, is being replaced, by exaggerated, and misleading computer simulations. We lose all nuance, and honesty, in the communication of news, to people.
Our methods of digital communication aren’t directly comparable to its natural variant. When we communicate digitally using text, our body language is lost. We try to circumvent this by using things like emoticons to replace our genuine body language. Translating our complex wide-ranging human emotions into a set list of emoji’s is absurd. This is an example of humans trying to transform themselves, to make the technology work. Our rules for digital communication differ from its natural variant. Sending a text-message to notify someone of the passing of a family member or friend is considered rude and blunt. Although in time, as people are getting more synthesized to the technology, it could very well be considered normal. Technology has the ability to change our morals. Even though technology isn’t even coming close to simulating the complexity of human communication. Technology could play a huge role in improving our modes of communication. Jaron Lanier, as much a technology lover as a technology critic, most famous for coining the term virtual reality, writes about his fascination for Cephalopods. These highly intelligent creatures are able to transform themselves into any shape of color as they wish. Lanier dreams of a future where we, with the use of virtual reality, are able to do this ourselves.44 If we would be able to transform ourselves into anything we wish, we wouldn’t need to use metaphors anymore when we’re talking. We could actually become them. It would make us able to develop a much richer language. In this kind of communication you can imagine we transcend spoken language and actually become it.
What is considered real anymore? The classical meaning of real, would be something you can see, and physically touch. Something that is not artificial or imitated. In the 19th century there already where discussions about reality. Stereoscopic images, where in some cases considered controversial. The technique of taking two pictures, at slightly different angles, resulted in the ability to capture a small part of reality, in three dimensions. But instead of taking pictures at a slight distance, compareable to the distance of our eyes, it also created the ability to increase this distance. This resulted in images with much greater depth range. Greater, than we as humans could naturally witness. The Catholic Church wasn’t very happy about this. This kind of view was unnatural for humans to see and this sort of scale of the world should only be allowed to be seen by God.45
The computer has made it possible to reproduce and simulate almost anything. We live in the age of the non-physical object. Instead of having a bookcase full of books, you can now simply have thousands of books on your hard drive. There is no real need for a lot of physical items anymore. This has also resulted in a change of our perception of value. We understand the monetary value of physical objects, but with digitization it has become harder for us to value a digital file
Technology is at a high state of abstraction. Computers have surpassed the understanding of their users and have become indispensible to them.46 With a lack of adequate technical literacy, combined with processes of blackboxing, these systems themselves resist interrogation.47 Instead of us programming intelligent machines by using a top-down approach. Which would mean that programmers would code every single bit of knowledge into these machines. Programmers now use a bottom-up approach. Resulting in machines that can now develop themselves using biological principles. Using this kind of approach technology is becoming increasingly more intelligent. Resulting in an even more complex relationship to technology. People will always in some way ascribe human characteristiscs to objects. This effect is called antrophomorphism.48 The question if things can actually have real emotions, has been part of many philosophical conversations. But even if there would be no possibility for things to have real emotions, we ascribe emotions to them anyway. The technology doesn’t have to be very advanced for us to antropomorphize it. But when simulations come very close to reality, it usually results in an uneasy feeling to the user. This is called the uncanny valley, where things simultaneously feel familiar and foreign.
Our society is filled with simulations. It becomes really confusing, when we don’t even know, if we’re dealing with a real person, or artificial intelligence. These situations already exist. The ability to judge something as real, is important in order to retain our own human authenticity. We react differently to real humans of flesh-and-blood, than we do to bits and bytes. I think if we stop being able to distinguish, between the real, and the imitated, our communication and interactions will change immensely. We risk losing our individuality, by trying to adjust ourselves to the technology.
A Dutch Twitter user was questioned by the police after one of his Twitter bots made a death threat. His bot takes random words from his tweets, to form them into new tweets.49 These situations lead to new questions. Is the programmer responsible for the outcome? There is always a chance of unexpected results. The invention of language and writing have been very important for the human species. In this experiment I wanted to see if it was possible to simulate language and writing. Using artificial neural networks trained on thousands of books and thousands of examples of handwriting. I was able to generate a Robot Letter. The input I had on this process was combining these techniques, choosing the color of the pen, the sort of paper, and paper size. All the characters generated are unique, and look very human like. In one of the letters, the “robot” seems to be getting stuck on one striking word. Consciousness.
A dutch twitter user, was questioned by the police, after one of his twitter bots made a death threat. His bot takes random words from his tweets, to form them in to new tweets.
Textual Source36 Next Nature - Koert van Mensvoort (189)
37 Next Nature - Ties van de Werff (229)
38 You Are Not a Gadget - Jaron Lanier (57)
39 New Aesthetic, New Anxieties (12)
40 http://Psypost - Brain Scans Shows Hyperconnected Neural Networks(11/01/2016)
41 Cracked - 6 acts of real life heroism by video games. (03/17/2012)42 Petran Kockelkoren - Techniek: kunst, kermis & theater (12)43 Vilém Flusser - Een filosofie van de fotografie (15)44 Jaron Lanier - You Are Not a Gadget (123-124)45 Instruments and the Imagination - Hankins en Silverman46 Weizenbaum 1984: (236)47 Vilém Flusser - Een filosofie van de fotografie (67)48 Next Nature - Koert van Mensvoort (351-354)49 The Verge - Twitter Bot Police Death Threats (02/12/2015)
Video SourcesDanoush Khairkhah - VeriFone Vx510BestGreenScreen - Dollar RainBurger Fiction - Movie Phone Super Calljadesaber - The History of GUISilvio Lorusso - Winamp Skin PartyColdFusion - Are We Approaching Robotic Consciousnesses?Motherboard - Inside the Japanese Hotel Staffed by RobotsBrit Lab - Meeting an Emotional RobotStorm Signal - Nguni Cattle Drive - South African Cattle RanchComputer Clan - A Tour of Windows 98Mercedes-Benz Museum - 1894 Benz Motor VelocipedElectronic Music Skills - What is MIDI?Annemie Van Riel - Saraghina, Odjbox, pianoWeb Directions - Waving at the MachineVernissageTV - Gerhard Richter / Cologne CathedralMaude Kasperzak - Virtual RealityAutobyel - Lexus Self-Closing DoorsCar and Driver - 2013 Tesla Model S: Tested : 2013 : la Model SRacersDrag - Lamborghini AventadorPBS Newshour - Can VIdeo Games Play a Role in Violent Behavior?Maka91Productions - Sunset OverdriveMotoGamesTV - DriveClub - Ferrari 488Motherboard - America’s Ex-Drone PilotDerpcrawler - Unreal Engine 4 - Unreal Paris Virtual Tour Demojackfrags - Star Wars BattlefrontPaxtonRU - Video Game Saves LivesKim Laughton - Go Do Artledgeri csatornája - Europort traffic jamary lukesl - Second Life Trailer 2013Submarine Channel - Molotov Alva and His Search for the CreatorIan Bogost - Seeing Things - OOOIIILudwig Zeller - New Needs in an Augmented WorldGoogle Earth Official Channel - Google Earth 5.0 - HistoricalThe Verge - This is the Most Amazing Drone We’ve Seen YetBeto R - Samsung Galaxy S GPSsophialightfoot - Inside a CCTV control roomSiemens - Intelligent outdoor motion detectionGeoffrey Lillemon - Iris van Herpen - VoltageIll-Studio - Nowness - Another RealityTomoNews US: Obama and other VIPs take selfieTegenlicht - Hoe echt is echt?Taiwanese Animators - Germany Syrian refugee crisisCasey Neistat - Texting While WalkingTechCrunch - Signal Secure Messaging Appemoji.zoneletitbrain - This is not PrivateSteven Holl Architects - Daeyang GalleryCottage Industry Films - OMGSPSN - Using the HM1300TomoNews US - Wearable translator glassesKim Laughton - SiliconciousVernissageTV - Monumental Interactive SmileyJaron LanierBBC - Virtual Reality Tomorrows WorldChelsey Hoff - Video Drips 3rd ChannelEva Papamargariti - New NostheticsAlvaro Posadas - OdiseoELSTRAN BROS - loveletter 恋文StereoscopeH.C. White Co. - The famous Cliff House and Seal Rocks from SutroMt. La Fayette from Baldashens - Viewmaster StereoscopeRockville Plantation Negro ChurchR. Y. Young - A Fairy-land of ice and snowError418 -Evolution of the Personal ComputerThe Young Turks - Apple Kills ‘I am Rich’ iPhone App3D Tutorials and News - Shiny Blue Diamond AnimationQuantumGamer - I Am RichZEITGUISED - geist.xyzRobert Seidel - scrapeLucy McRae - FUTURE DAY SPAMercedes Concept Shooting BreakRedLightBulb’s channel - Elektro the Robot Breaks a BalloonMarquees Brownlee - The New Macbook Impressions!Black Box: We Make Technology WorkPBS NewsHour: Why we’re teaching computers to help treat cancerTimo - Internet machine (trailer)TED - How We Tech Computers to Understand PicturesKyle McDonald - NeuralTalk and Walkozzeozborn - Tamagotchi CommercialHorituning - S13 winkAFP news agency - In Japan, robot dogs are for life — and deathVPRO - Tegenlicht: De robot als mensCasdon Toys plc - Henry VacuumThe CGBros - Gustav HoegenMatt Denton - Animatronic HeadLoma Linda University Health - Medical Simulation Centerwochit Entertainment -Twitter Is Making Big Changes To TimelineEphemeral Rift - Sound Journeys 3Oskar Fischinger - Studie nr8KeepTheFaith2014 - Obama HealthCare RFID Chip Implant
4. Machine
Humans need technology to survive. Technology gives people the tools to understand and experience the world. Language, writing systems and images are examples of technology, that help us comprehend the world. By creating boundaries, we are able to accept and connect to the world. For over 40.000 years, we have made paintings, and sculptures, of our nature. Images have become very important to humans. Images are mediators, between the world, and man. Humans do not have immediate access to the the world, but needs images to help him make the world conceivable. Our definition of nature is changing. Our normal perception of nature, is everything that has been born, and lives autonomously. Things like: trees, the sun and lightning. But there is also a next nature. A nature that has been made by people, but also functions autonomously. For example: digital networks, traffic jams, cities and the financial system. These are all things made by humans, but not fully controlled by humans anymore. To be able to explain this next nature, I created an installation, that paints this technological nature. It is letting technology paint its own nature. Is it possible for technology to develop its own view of the world? For this installation I am using data from stock exchanges. This stock exchange data is sent to a plotter, converting the data into movement. Resulting in a drawing on the iPad underneath. Quite often in technological installations, the technology is made invisible. By using the plotter it is making the process more visible. It is showing, how technology, is able to lead its own life. Resulting in a machine able to draw its own nature.
Video SourcesPecos Hank - LIGHTNING- Epic cinematographyDronefanatic - NYC Drone Phantom 3 4ktnriversix - Great Dickson Traffic Jam Power Outage 172BBC News - Chauvet caveRamblin Around - Crop dusting plane at workBeachfront B-Roll - Ant Hill with CloverEloise Yokum - Stock market tickerRunerProgressive - Flyover Los Angeles at Night National Galleries - Impressionism - 'en plein air'PBS - Why we’re teaching computers to help treat cancer
5. Conclusion
With this essay exploring the influence of technology on humans, it would be only fair, to acknowledge the mediation of this essay itself. In using two major technological human inventions, linear writing and the mechanical image. It is putting technology in the forefront. As a form of meaning, but also as a form of mediation. The images and texts, are used together to illustrate each other. The combination can result in a different meaning, than if the mediums would be isolated from each other. The invention of the Internet has made it possible to access such a great amount of writing, ideas and images. By sampling small parts out of videos, combining it with written sources, it will always result in something different than orignially intended. It should also be noted that a lot of the texts are based on philosophical ideas, and therefore aren’t necessarily the truth. But they are interesting views on the subject that I can personally relate to.
Instead of nature and technology getting more separated, I think it is far more likely for them to actually become much closer. Designers like Joris Laarman, use the rules of nature to design. He creates structures, that are developed in the same way, as bones are in nature. Structures become bigger where more support is needed, and smaller where enough support is achieved. Which is exactly how nature functions. This is a very efficient and interesting way of designing. Philosophers like Koert van Mensvoort continually question the divide between nature and technology. When I started researching the influence of technology on humans, I did not expect nature to play such a big part in it. For me this research has resulted in a very different view on the relationship between nature and technology. Therefore I owe a lot to the Next Nature book written by Koert van Mensvoort. For anyone interested to read more about this subject I would recommend reading this fascinating book. My opinion on technology itself, has also changed. Before this research I was far more of a techno-optimist than I am now. I have reached more of a middle ground between being a techno-pessimist and a techno-optimist.
I am still very passionate about technology, and the sense of wonder it can create is extremely powerful. The goal of these videos, is to have a critical look at the positive, and negative characteristics of technology. It is hard to deny the immense positive influence technology has had on the human species. Without our need and desire, to build a world for ourselves, that is continiously trying to become more efficient, and pleasurable, we wouldn’t have become the humans we are now. Humans and technology are inseparable. This makes it all the more important for us, to be aware of these influences. Technology is moving so quickly that it’s always hard for politics and legislation to catch up. And not in the least it is very difficult for humans to keep catching up. We continually have to adjust ourselves to find our comfortable center again, until the next technology comes along. I hope these videos help people to understand that humans cannot simply be for or against technology. Simply being against technology would deny the technological human nature. And simply accepting all technological inventions would be quite dangerous. Therefore we always have to question ourselves; how do we use this technology to improve ourselves as a species? It is especially important for programmers and designers to be aware of these technological influences. It is our responsibility to design and apply technology in such a way that it affects us positively. Designers, artists and programmers have an important task to take the moral influences of technology into account. New technologies yield new questions, and new perspectives of the future.
One of the major technological breakthroughs that we have all experienced emerging into our lives, is the Internet. The Internet has massively changed our perception. In most ways positive. But also in some ways less pleasurable. For example it is changing our notion of privacy. With technology like Google Glass, we are trying to find out what our personal boundaries are. This is very difficult because everyone has different boundaries. For newer generations these sort of changes might be considered normal. That is why it’s important to continually question technology and think of the consequences. But we have always been bad at trying to predict the future. We never really know where specific technologies might take us. The telephone was actually designed to be a hearing aid, and the typewriter was designed to make it easier for the blind to write. Look at where these inventions have taken us now. Although it is very hard to make any prediction about the future, I still think it’s very important to do. Will we one day merge with machines? Will we become transhuman? Will humans be replaced with intelligent machines? People like Ray Kurzweil and Hans Moravec are actively trying to answer and discuss such questions.
Technology has the power to achieve wonderful things, but there are two sides to every story. If we in the future, would be able to upgrade ourselves, to become a post-human. By, for example, changing our genetic composition, or upgrading ourselves with electronics. We might be able to make big leaps as a species. The American physicist Freeman Dyson, believes this kind of technology could help humans overcome poverty, and inequality.50 Personally I find this hard to believe. As it appears now, I think it could achieve, an even greater divide between the human species. Able to result in a genetic divide, between the rich and the poor. Therefore, it is always important to always be critical of technology. As we see most of our world through technology, be it images, screens, language or words it is important to be aware of the influence it has on humans.
Thank you for watching and goodbye.
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